In the same whisper she answered "Hush!" warningly, before repeating the figures aloud and correctly. The girl, on her part, returned rapidly and indifferently:
"Twenty-five hundred."
"She seems a different creature when she is doing it!" Marie exclaimed admiringly. "Now one more, and then I must run down and see in what sort of a temper Monsieur Plon finds himself. If it is good, he will lend me his journal. At any rate, I shall only be gone a moment. Allons! Something difficult, something to take away, shall it be?"
As before the whisper responded:
"From thirteen thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine, take eight thousand five hundred and four."
Madame Didier began in a puzzled voice, "From eight thousand five hundred and four, take thirteen—" but, seeing Périne shake her head, caught herself up. "No, no, not that, of course not that!"
"The other way, stupid woman!" said the whisper.
Slowly she started again, "From thirteen thousand," and, interprompted by the mysterious voice, arrived at the end of her sum, "nine hundred and—fifty—nine—take—eight—thousand—five hundred—and—four."
Quick as thought came the answer:
"Five thousand four hundred and fifty-five."